Get by with a little help from our friends

The world can be a very mean, nasty place. Skydiving, BASE jumping, paragliding, speed flying – doing these things can make it feel like all your problems are gone, at least for a few seconds or minutes. But we can’t be in freefall or under canopy all the time.

When it feels like the world has its claws in you, turn to your sky family. We’ve gathered quite a few resources from our friends in our seven years of existence; here are a few assembled together like the bad-weather Avengers. If you know of some others, please share in the comments. Or, if there’s an issue you’d like us to find resources for, let us know those as well.

Whether you’ve made one jump or ten thousand, you’re a member of a big family with big open arms waiting to help with whatever you’re going through. Reach out to the people at your drop zone. If you’re not part of a tight-knit community at your DZ yet or you want to join another awesome community, Melanie Curtis’ Virtual Skydiving Center (The VSC) is a great resource. She’s got a group of jumpers together to talk about pretty much everything to do with skydiving – exit tips, dealing with post-boogie blues, finding a team, skydiving naked, break-off fear – yeah, everything.

We’ve also had a bunch of great posts over the years that might help, if you’re the reading type (#RavenclawsUnite):

Deaths in the sport hitting you hard?

Douggs wrote about what it’s like witnessing so many friends and fellow jumpers die, and outlines tips for every situation: Death in the Sport of Life

Sydney tackles this tough one from the newbie perspective: If You Stay

Suicidal thoughts – or missing someone who’s died by suicide?

If it’s getting so bad that you’re thinking about killing yourself, first: PLEASE DON’T. There is no one on this earth who would not be deeply, painfully missed by someone. If you’re here, you’re a jumper and therefore have something in common with all of us. There are so many ways to get help. Please ask for help. Call the Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), chat online at CrisisChat.org, or text START to 741-741, the Crisis Text Line.

Want to help someone else out and/or feel good about the state of humanity?

Canopies for Kids delivers teddy bears to kids in hospitals. BUT. Those teddy bears have gone skydiving! With you perhaps?

Kellie Greene started a phenomenal charity called Operation Freefall to help sexual assault victims reclaim their lives by skydiving. Experienced jumpers can participate and raise money in the annual April event.

Just need a laugh or a smile?

The. Fuckin’. Pilot. Not everything he writes is funny (airplane safety isn’t really a gut buster, no matter how important it is) but just keep reading. At least one of his pieces is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes.

Drop Zone Dance Off! Another Melanie Curtis masterpiece. She somehow got drop zones all over the world to choreograph dances and upload them to the internet.

We’ll leave you with our favorite DZ Dance Off (We can come out and declare a favorite now. It’s been two years.). A celebration of life, grass skirts, sexy skydivers, hot pilots and screaming out ‘fuck that’ – and that’s what we all jump to do in the first place, right?